I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to the field of housing assemblies for electronic equipment and, more particularly, to a compact ventilated arrangement for combining a plurality of housings aligned in stacked parallel relation in which the housings contain discrete functional units such as disk drives and in which the housings are connected electrically in parallel to a common pass-through electrical bus.
II. Description of the Related Art
Personal computer systems and peripherals are commonly provided with a power supply that supplies a plurality of discrete functional units or auxiliary devices in parallel with respect to a common bus. In this manner, a number of circuit boards may be provided which are mounted in spaced parallel relation, each carrying a functional unit and each having edge connectors or contact areas which connect to a different connector in a main or mother board. If the system is expanded beyond the number of units or boards that can be directly accommodated by the mother board, an additional enclosure with additional connecting capacity must be provided and interconnected to the mother board as by an external pigtail joiner arrangement.
Modular side-by-side or stacked arrangements are known in which each separate functional unit is provided with a housing. Commonly one module is a power supply module which serves as a base module on which the others are stacked. Other modules may have floppy disk drives, detailed data storage, or the like. Each housing, in turn, is provided with pin and socket connector arrangements adapted to align with and engage those of other units in a manner such that all the units can be connected together in modular fashion in parallel with a common power supply and data bus. One stacking arrangement with a plurality of enclosures in which each enclosure is provided with a male connector on one side and a female connector on the other is disclosed by Buron et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,070 and Sisler in U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,460.
Each individual unit in such a system typically also generates an amount of heat which must be dissipated by conductive heat transfer or a ventilation means. In this regard, it is also known to provide a common ventilation system in which a blower or exhaust fan is associated with the power module such that cooling air is aspirated through vents in several units and exhausted from the power module. Such an arrangement is also shown by Buron et al in the above-mentioned reference.
Such arrangements have alleviated some of the problems associated with integrating a plurality of individual functional units with a common power supply and data bus. However, there remains a need for providing a stacked modular system of such units that allows free module interchangeability and add-ons, which, at the same time, not only affords proper continuity of ventilation and electrical interconnecting, but also protects both the power connection and ventilation access of all modular units including the exposed ultimate unit.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved modular stacking arrangement for distributively interfacing a plurality of separately housed functional units to be used with a personal computer which provides protected hidden electrical interconnects and positive flow through ventilation.
Another object of the invention is to allow free interchangeability of modular units of different sizes in such a system.
Still another object is to provide such a system in which the outer electrical connector and vent openings of the ultimate functional modular unit are protected.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent in connection with the detailed description provided below take together with the several drawing Figures.